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Although now officially in Tamil Nadu, PADMANABHAPURAM,63km southeast of Thiruvananthapuram, was the capital of Travancore between 1550 and 1750, and therefore has a far more intimate connection with the history of Kerala. Unusually, it is administered by the government of Kerala. For anyone with even a minor interest in Keralan architecture, this small palace is an irresistible attraction. However, avoid weekends,when the complex gets overrun with bus parties. Occasionally parts of the palace are closed to visitors for restoration. Set in neat graveled grounds in a quiet location away from the main road, the predominantly wooden Padmanabhapuram Palace (Tues-Sun 9am-4.30pm; Rs6, Rs10 extra with camera) epitomizes classical Keralan architecture. It is reached by crossing the main road from the bus station, turning left, and then following a road on the right for a pleasant ten- or fifteen-minute walk through the paddy fields. The substantial walls of the palace compound delimit a small village. Against a backdrop of steep-sided hills, the exterior of the palace - parts of which date back to the town's earliest days - displays a perfect combination of clean lines and gentle angles, with the sloping tiled roofs of its various interconnecting buildings broken by triangular projecting gables enclosing delicately carved screens. All visitors have to be shown around by the informative guides who do not charge a fee but expect a tip. At busy times they will rush you through the palace, especially if there are few of you, in order to catch the next group. In the entrance hall (a veranda), a brass oil lamp hangs from an ornate teak, rosewood and mahogany ceiling carved with ninety different lotus flowers. Beautifully ornamented, the revolving lamp inexplicably keeps the position in which it is left, seeming to defy gravity. The raja rested from the summer heat on the cool polished granite bed in the corner. On the wall is a collection of onamvillu, ceremonial bows painted with reclining Vishnus (or more properly Padmanabha), which local chieftains would present to him during the Onam festival. Directly above the entrance, on the first floor, is the mantrasala or council chamber, gently illuminated through panes of colored mica. Herbs soaking in water were put into the boxed bench seats along the front wall, as a natural cooling system.
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The highly polished black floor was made from a now-lost technique using burnt coconut, sticky sugar-cane extract, egg whites, lime and sand. The oldest part of the complex is the Ekandamandapam - "the lonely place". Built in 1550, it was used for rituals for the goddess Durga that typically employed kalam ezhuttu, elaborate floor paintings. A loose ring attached to a column is a tour de force of the carpenter: both ring and column are carved from a single piece of jack wood. Nearby is a nalekettu, the four-sided courtyard found in many Keralan houses, open to the sky and surrounded by a pillared walkway. A trapdoor once served as the entrance to a secret passageway leading to another palace, since destroyed. The Pandya-style stone-columned dance hall stands directly in front of a shrine to the goddess of learning, Saraswati. The women of the royal household had to watch performances through screens on the side, and the staff through holes in the wall from the gallery above. Typical of old country houses, steep wooden ladder-like steps, ending in trapdoors, connect the floors. Belgian mirrors and Tanjore miniatures of Krishna adorn the chamber forming part of the women's quarters, where a swing hangs on plaited iron ropes. A four-poster bed, made from sixteen kinds of medicinal wood, dominates the raja's bedroom. Its elaborate carvings depict a mass of vegetation, human figures, birds and as the central motif, the snake symbol of medicine, associated with the Greek physician Asclepius. The murals for which the palace is famous - alive with detail, colour, graceful form and religious fervor - adorn the walls of the meditation room, used by the raja and the heirs apparent, directly above the bedroom. Unfortunately, this is now closed - allegedly because the stairs are shaky, but in fact to preserve the murals, which have been severely damaged by generations of hands trailing along the walls. Further points of interest in the palace include a dining hall intended for the free feeding of up to 2000 brahmins, and a 38-kilo stone which, it is said, every new recruit to the raja's army had to raise above his head 101 times.
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